Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay is a thriller that delivers. From the minute it starts, the plot does not slow down. Finlay is really good at keeping the reader in suspense, and while some of the plot was slightly predictable, it didn’t detract from the story at all. I read this book in two sittings, and stayed up way too late at night reading.
4 Stars
After reading Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds last month and loving it, the next logical step was to read The Grapes of Wrath. A classic that I had been meaning to read since high school, I’m glad I waited to read this as an adult. I think I could appreciate it better.
I loved the alternating chapters, one which told the stories of actual refugees from the dust bowl, and one which told the story of the Joads. The book was a grim window into the realities of the Great Depression and the Dust bowl, and the discrimination “Okies” faced trying to find a better life for themselves in California.
My only complaint is I wish there was more story to tell. I want to know what happened to the Joads. I like to imagine things got better for them, and they were able to reunite with those they had to separate from.
5 Stars
Pretty Things was my book club’s pick for April. At first I didn’t think it would be a book I would enjoy, but in the end I thought the book was pretty good.
A thriller, it took about half of the book to really become what I would define as a “thriller.” Once I passed the halfway mark, I didn’t want to put the book down.
My one complaint would be there just seemed to be too many twists to make sense. I think with so many twists you were really expected to suspend your disbelief a little too much, and it really made Nina and Vanessa seem dense and oblivious most of the time that they weren’t able to see some of these situations before they arose.
4 Stars
I had been really looking forward to reading The Paris Library, and while it was a good book, I felt slightly let down by it.
Odile’s story was really the part of the book I cared the most about. I loved hearing about her life in Paris both before and during the War. However, it took a very long time for it to get to the war, and I guess I was expecting her to play a bigger role in things. But as my husband pointed out, sometimes it’s the stories of people who do mundane things, or the small things that need to be told, and that was Odile’s story.
Lily’s story was one that I really didn’t understand why it was there. I found myself struggling through her portions. It wasn’t until the final chapter that the inclusion of Lily made some sort of sense.
The story took a while to get into, but once it picked up, it was hard to put down.
4 Stars
Accidentally Engaged tells the story of an arranged engagement, but with the twist that the two characters meet before their parents can introduce them and they fall in love on their own terms. In this case, around baked goods.
I loved Reena and Nadim, and their whole story. They were cute, and nothing about the plot felt overly contrived. It seemed to move at a realistic pace. And it made me really hungry, especially for sourdough.
4 Stars
After being burned by Charlaine Harris with the end of the Sookie Stackhouse series, I’ve been very hesitant to support her or read anything else by her. However, for the PopSugar Reading Challenge, I needed a genre hybrid, and An Easy Death came highly recommended, so I gave it a try. And I’m glad I did.
I really like the characters of Lizbeth and Eli. I like their chemistry, and how they work together. I enjoyed the mystery, and the pace in which it was told. I was super bothered by the time line. No matter how much I mathed, there’s no way Eli could be the age he is if the events really unfolded the way Harris laid them out.
Overall the book was entertaining enough that I have the second book sitting in my TBR.
4 Stars
Recommended by a friend, A Deadly Education took a minute to get into, the narration was really hard to breath through, but once you’re in, you need to figure out what happens next.
Set in a magical school that is out to kill you, El is just trying to survive, but she’s a magnet to all the Mals in the school. Orion likes to rescue people, and the two clash often throughout the book, until they don’t. The book is a little heavy with world building and exposition, but the plot really does shine through.
I enjoyed the book enough that I will probably read the next one. Who am I kidding? With the last paragraph of this one, I’m intrigued enough that I will definitely be picking up the next book in this series.
4 Stars
I really wanted to love The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, and on paper it seems like the perfect book for me. However, the pacing of the book, and just the way the story was told really just fell flat for me.
I felt like the book was trying to do too much at one time. I wish it had chosen one thing to focus on, either Nina’s discovery of this whole family she had no idea she had, or the romance with the rival Trivia Team Captain. By trying to fit in both, the story just felt super rushed, and none of the characters felt very developed.
3 Stars
Another book that I really wanted to love, but fell flat, We Could Be Heroes just didn’t resonate with me the way I had hoped it would.
I don’t know if I wasn’t in the right mood, but this book felt like a struggle to get through. It didn’t hold my interest at all. Which is unfortunate because I really liked Zoe and Jamie. And I was really interested in their story. I just walked away from the book feeling very “meh.” (BOTM)
3 Stars
Slowly making my way through the Dune series, and Children of Dune found me saying out loud, several times, “What is going on? This is so weird. They are NINE.”
I have really enjoyed this book, and this series, but I have a feeling as I continue to the next book, things are just going to get weirder, and things were also really weird in this book. I’ll never fully understand the pre-born, and some of the situations the Atreides twins were in made me understand why the mini-series aged them up significantly. My favorite character is still Duncan Idaho.
4 Stars
Stephanie Caffrey, Author 